One of the possible reasons for getting this error is when trying to create a table and the statement is using the 4-part table name instead of just the 3-part name. If it does, remove the server name as part of the create table statement and just use <DatabaseName>.<Owner>.<TableName>.

I was getting the following:Server: Msg 117, Level 15, State 2, Line 4The number name 'ServerName.AAD.dbo.t_employee' contains more than the maximum number of prefixes. The maximum is 3.

I couldn't find any other threads with my answer. Maybe I'm alone on this but it took me hours to find this solution, so I thought I'd post it here in hopes it helps out the next person searching on this.

It's a simple, but not obvious, answer. Put the table you are updating in the FROM clause with an alias and update the alias, as follows: